Quarg
"Our species began on the moon of a great gas giant, on a planet most small, that gathered about itself very little air. And we are an old race, and do not kill for sport or whimsy, so the Drak gave us the gift, that we may go among the other races and settle where we please, and make friends of all, because none dare be our enemy." -Anonymous Quarg, First Contact: Quarg The Quarg are an ancient race of powerful aliens who inhabit ringworlds scattered across the galaxy. Their technology is renowned for being some of the most powerful obtainable tech in the game, including ridiculously powerful shield generators, batteries, and weapons. History The Quarg are apparently native to the Milky Way, although it is unknown where exactly they originate from within the galaxy. At some point in their past, for whatever reason, they challenged the Pug; in retaliation, the Pug broke one of the Quarg's ringworlds. In 2320, the Quarg made first contact with humanity; by 2330, they were beginning to learn human languages. About a thousand years ago, the Quarg came into conflict with a collection of three different species which had banded together to form an organization known as the Coalition. The Coalition's leaders, the Heliarchs, claim that through unification of their forces, they were able to defeat their Quarg "oppressors" in battle, capturing the three ringworlds in Coalition space and ousting the Quarg. The Quarg, however, take a different claim to this history, stating that they voluntarily left to avoid conflict. Attributes The Quarg are considerably tall compared to humans. Their legs bend backwards at the bottom, "like a dog walking on its hind feet," and they move gracefully and almost silently. Their eyelids come from their sides instead of from the top and the bottom; the eyes themselves look almost human, except for their unusual variety of iris colors, such as gold or violet. Their skin is a deep gray with slight hints of green and blue beneath it, and is somewhat scaly. It is apparent that Quarg fashion centers around texture, rather than color. The Quarg are bald, but some wear small cloth caps and hoods. The two Quarg ships in the game, the Skylark and the Wardragon, have nothing in common with each other visually. While the Skylark is dark, blocky and textured, reminiscent of the Quarg's fashion style, the Wardragon is bright gold, leading some to speculate that the Wardragon is not actually of Quarg design. Technology Ships: * Wardragon * Skylark Outfits: Weapons * Quarg Skylance * Quarg Anti-Missile Systems * Quantum Shield Generator * Intrusion Countermeasures Power * Antimatter Core * Nanotech Battery Engines * Medium Graviton Thruster * Medium Graviton Steering Interspecies Relations The Quarg generally refrain from violence, unless a species attacks another species in the Milky Way. * Humans: The Quarg are neutral towards humanity: they do not oppose humans (although humans have attempted to attack them in the past), but they refuse to intervene in either the Human Civil War or the Human–Pug war. The Quarg have a ringworld in Enif. * Hai: The Quarg are neutral towards the Hai: while they have a ringworld in Hai space, they have not demonstrated any willingness to actively fight with or against the Hai. * Unfettered Hai: The Quarg have not yet displayed any indication of their attitude towards the Unfettered, as they do not interact during the game, although it is likely that they are neutral towards them due to their policies towards not intervening in other species' conflicts. * Korath Exiles: Whether the Quarg are actively hostile towards the Korath exiles for their actions in the Korath Civil War—that is, whether they actually bear strong negative feelings toward them—is unclear. But, as a result of their actions, the Quarg and the Drak intervened, ending the war and exiling the leaders of the Kor Mereti and Kor Sestor factions to the Core. * Kor Efreti: The Quarg protect the Kor Efreti from the hostile Korath automata, but otherwise seem to have no strong opinions toward them. The Quarg have a ringworld in Efreti space. * Kor Mereti: The Quarg are initially hostile towards the Kor Mereti, but cease combat with them once the Wanderers pacify them. * Kor Sestor: The Quarg are hostile towards the Kor Sestor. * Pug: The Quarg had once opposed the Pug, and it is apparent that the Quarg still bear a great deal of animosity towards them. The Pug state that "We are in fact on blowing-each-other-up terms with them" The Pug have destroyed one of the Quarg ringworlds, now visible in World's End. * Wanderers: The Quarg are distrustful of the Wanderers because of their extragalactic origins and connections to the Pug, but grudgingly send ships to protect them from the Korath automata, if only to supervise them. * Drak: The Quarg are friendly towards the Drak, seeing themselves as the Drak's servants. * Coalition: Because of the Coalition's connections to the Heliarchs, the Quarg are very likely hostile to the Coalition. * Heliarchs: The Quarg are very likely hostile to the Heliarchs because of their incident a thousand years ago, but no in-game information from the Quarg's perspective exists to confirm or deny this. Trivia * The Quarg are the only alien race, pre-Pug invasion, that humanity was publicly aware of. * As part of Michael's early story plans, the Quarg were intended to eventually be rebalanced—after all other species were added into the game—to maintain their position as the second strongest race in the game. As such, their outfits and ships can be seen as placeholders or having placeholder attributes. However, with the addition of the Coalition, their true strength has been called into question. Category:Species Category:Tier 3